Since joining the government, Catherine Vautrin has not been idle. A dizzying pile of files rises in the office of the Hôtel du Châtelet, located rue de Grenelle, in Paris, where she took up residence on January 11. Recently, two major themes have been of great interest to the Minister of Labor, Health and Solidarity: the reform of unemployment insurance and the law relating to the end of life, the examination of which in public session begins on Monday 27 May to the National Assembly.
But there are many other questions on which the former elected representative of Les Républicains (LR), aligned with Macronie, is working: “act II” of the transformation of the employment market, the financing needs of hospitals, the creation of birth leave… Her schedule is nicely full. So busy that many of her interlocutors regret that she is only part-time on the “work” side of her job. François Hommeril, the president of the CFE-CGC, even gave him this little jab full of irony, during a press conference: “I thought I understood that, for several months, [le ministère du travail] was closed. »
From the start, the extent of his responsibilities struck people’s minds. In January, Catherine Vautrin deployed on multiple fronts, from investments in the healthcare system to the development of a law on old age, including the time that children devote to screens or evolution of the rules on paid leave. “Its prerogatives are so broad that they almost bring to mind the empire of Charles V on which the sun never setdeclares Raymond Soubie, president of the Alixio group and social advisor to Nicolas Sarkozy when he was at the Elysée (2007-2012). Bringing together work, health and solidarity in the same portfolio is quite exceptional in the history of our institutions. »
Slightly equivalent cases have, however, already presented themselves during the Ve Republic. Example: Xavier Bertrand dealt with work, employment and health between November 2010 and May 2012, while benefiting from the help of a ministry responsible for professional training and a state secretariat responsible for health. May also be mentioned the Ministry of Employment and Solidarity, from June 1997 to May 2002, which was flanked, depending on the period, by two or three delegated ministries (including one for health) and a secretariat of State. Responsible for social affairs and employment between March 1986 and May 1988, Philippe Séguin was able to rely on a delegated ministry for health and family and, at times, on two state secretariats (one of which on Social Security).
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